So I prepared this message primarily
for those that do not know the Lord. But those of you sitting here
today that do know Him, I think will rejoice in the things that
I have to say. I'm going to be taking my text from
Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. While you're turning there, Christ, in his prayer to the
Father before his crucifixion, said in John 17, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. And this, is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Now of the thousands of religions
in the world today, I asked Siri, when I want to know something,
I usually just cut to the chase and ask Siri. And I asked her,
I said, hey Siri, how many religions are in the world? And she replied,
there are more than 10,000 distinct religions in this world, which
amazed me. But out of those more than 10,000,
there is only one true religion, one that acknowledges Jesus Christ
as the only Lord and Savior, and His Father as the only true
God. But some would say, well, that
condemns the majority of the world. And indeed it does. But
thank God it does not condemn the entire world because there's
a number that God chose before the foundation of this world
that He will bring to faith in His Son. And they will be brought
to a knowledge of Christ. But a little bit on that later. Let's read the first seven verses
of Isaiah chapter 6. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain He covered His face,
and with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the
seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had
taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon
my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Now I've titled this
message, Five Things You Must Know. The first thing that you
must know, God Almighty is holy. He's unimaginably, infinitely
holy. Now we in our natural state cannot
begin to comprehend the God of this universe. Everyone has their
idea of God. Most imagine a God who they can
bend to their will, a God of their own making, a God who will
understand that though they're not perfect, they're not nearly
as bad as they could be, and they're certainly not as bad
as other folks. There's some picture of God who's
much like an elderly grandpa who gets mad at you for misbehaving,
but all he can really do is just holler a lot. But as someone
once said, your thoughts of God are much too human The true and
living God demands perfection, absolute, never failing perfection
every second of your life in order for you to enter into His
presence. But of course, one would say if that's the case,
no one's going to make it to heaven. And in and of themselves,
they would be right. But God has provided a way for
those who are constantly overtaken by sin to still enter into His
holy presence. We'll look at that in a few minutes. The Lord gave this commandment
to the nation of Israel in Leviticus 19. He said, You shall be holy,
for I the Lord your God am holy. But what do we mean exactly when
we say that God is holy? It means that He's perfect and
righteous in everything that He does. Everything He does,
is done in goodness and perfection. The scriptures tell us that He
is of purer eyes than to look upon sin. To say that God is
holy means that there is no flaw or shortcomings to be found in
His person. No matter what men may think
of God and His doings, everything He does is done in strict and
unbending righteousness. And this is the same perfection
that He demands from those that would worship Him. But obviously,
we cannot produce such holiness. So one would ask, how is it then
that any man or woman can ever hope to enter into heaven? And
as I said, we're going to look at how in just a few minutes. But first, there's a second thing
that you need to know. That in and of yourself, you
are not and never can be holy. If you're even the least bit
honest with yourself, you'll know that every thought of your
mind, every thought of your heart, every action is constantly laced
with sin. Every imagination of your heart
is anything but holy. And in case you won't admit what
you truly are in your innermost being, in your heart, The Scriptures
tell you what you are. The heart is the place in the
Scriptures from which all thoughts and actions originate. It's the
innermost being of a man or a woman. And in Jeremiah, we're warned
about the human heart. It tells us the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Not
just wicked, but desperately wicked. Turn with me over to
Matthew. Matthew the 15th chapter. Our
Lord spoke of this to His disciples. Matthew 15. We'll begin reading in verse
11 of Matthew 15. Well, let's start in verse 10.
And he called the multitude and said unto them, hear and understand,
not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that
which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Now, all
the alcohol you can drink and all the drugs that you can take
will not make you any worse than you are by nature. You're as
bad as you can possibly be. Your heart is as corrupt as it
can possibly be. But his disciples here heard
this and they didn't understand. The Lord asked him in verse 15
of this chapter. Peter, I should say, asked the
Lord and he said, Lord, declare unto us this parable. And we
read the Lord's reply starting in the next verse. And he said,
Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not yet understand? that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and
is cast out into the draft. But those things which proceedeth
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defileth
the man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, Thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. And this is the reason that Romans
3.13 describes the throat of lost men and women as an open
sepulcher. That which comes forth from it
is nothing but a rotten stench because it comes forth from the
heart. And this is the reason that you don't have to teach
your children how to lie, how to be deceitful, how to be sneaky. So if your heart is polluted
and desperately wicked, as the Scriptures tell us, you cannot
expect any good thing to come forth from it. A poisoned well
can only produce poisoned water. But in case you're still hoping
that your so-called righteousness might have some goodness or some
standing before a holy God. Let me read Isaiah 64.6 for you. This is a text we're all familiar
with, I believe. But we are all, that's all of
us, we are all as an unclean thing. And all of our righteousnesses,
not our evil things, but our righteousnesses, are as filthy
rags. We do all fade as a leaf. And
our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. We, the last
couple of days at home, have had tremendous amount of wind,
and 50, 60 miles an hour. And I looked out the window,
and there went the leaves blowing across the yard. Wherever that
wind blew them, that's the way that we are. Our iniquities,
it says, like the wind, have taken us away. We have about
as much chance as dealing with those iniquities as those leaves
do with a 60 mile an hour wind. But there's hope. But please
understand that these filthy rags to which God compares man's
righteousnesses are not rags with which you would clean the
house, or even those oily, greasy rags that you'd find maybe in
a mechanic's garage. No, our God compares our righteousnesses
to a used menstrual cloth that a woman would dispose of at her
time of the month. You do not wash those and remove
the filth. You dispose of them. Leviticus
15, verses 19 through 33 deal with this subject of a woman
having what we call her time of the month or her issue of
blood. And 12 times in those verses, she is referred to as
unclean. The same word that is used to
describe lepers. And this is what our God wants
you to understand, that the very best you can produce, what you
would refer to as your righteousnesses or your goodness, cannot be cleaned
up enough to be acceptable to Him. You are and always will
be unclean until God makes you otherwise. Isaiah 57, 12 tells
us, this is the Lord speaking, I will declare thy righteousness
and thy works, for they shall not profit thee. Your righteousness
must be disposed of, and you must rely on the righteousness
of another, the righteousness of a substitute. There's a third
thing that you must know. You're going to die. Now when
I say that, most folks say, Of course I'm going to die. Everybody
dies. But what I want to impress upon you is you might die today. Lost man or woman, you might
die today. I once heard Henry Mahan speaking
in this very subject, and he said this. He said, you can ask
a 98-year-old man, do you think you'll die today? And he'll say,
no, I think I've got a few good days left. And that's the way
we think. No one is going to die today. But none of us have any promise
of tomorrow. We say that, you know, and it kind of is a cliché. Yeah, none of us have a promise
of tomorrow. And that's so true. And that's not a fear for saved
men and women, those that are in Christ. But for the unbeliever
who's been awakened to his or her condition, it should be a
terror. Your one heartbeat, one breath, away from a horror
that no human mind can imagine. None of us have any promise of
tomorrow, which we're told in 2 Corinthians. It says, We then,
as workers together with Him, beseech ye also that ye receive
not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, I have heard thee
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored
thee. Behold now, is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day
of salvation. And Hebrews 3 tells us, whereof
as the Holy Ghost said today, if you will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts. Now, these verses are a warning
not to despise the goodness of God, to not harden your heart
against the truth of the gospel. God tells us here in these verses
how He destroyed an entire generation of Israelites because they held
His truth in contempt and would not bow to His sovereignty. They hardened their hearts against
all that was right and good, and God left them to perish in
the wilderness. Do not fool yourself, lost man
or woman, into thinking that you can come to God when you
feel like the time is right. And you need to get things straightened
out. You've sown your wild oats. And now it's time to get right
with God, as those stupid billboards that you see beside the interstate
say. And I plead with you not to trifle
with the God of glory. You do so at the peril of your
own soul. You will not play God for a fool.
And when it comes time to die, you're going to get right with
God. Galatians 6, 7 gives us a warning,
a solemn warning. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap. life everlasting. Now when these
verses tell us that a man would reap corruption, it means that
your eternal end will be dying but never being dead. Of eternally
cursing the God that you now despise. There's an old saying that actions
have consequences. And it's a true statement. Your
actions Your doings, your righteousnesses will end in eternal misery. But thanks be to God that the
actions of Christ also have consequences. On behalf of the lost men and
women who were given faith to believe on Him, He said this,
Whosoever believeth on Me shall never die. And he that believeth
on Me hath everlasting life. Those are the consequences of
the actions of Christ. We read in 2 Chronicles chapter
36 of how God sent his messengers to his people Israel. And the
people despised the message that was sent. Starting in verse 15,
we read this. And the Lord God of their fathers
sent to them his messengers, arising up at times and sending,
because he had compassion on his people. But they mocked the messengers
of God and despised His words, and misused His prophets until
the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no
remedy. And so it will be with everyone
who hears the truth of Christ crucified and despises The message
of God's grace towards sinners. There will come a time in your
life, very well maybe, that you will
no longer be able to believe. That you despise the grace of
God to the point where He will leave you to perish. Turn with
me please to the book of Proverbs. This is one of the most solemn
texts that I know of in the scriptures. Proverbs chapter 1. If you think you can trifle with
God and then come to Him when you feel like it, this is a warning
I'm about to read for you. Proverbs 1, beginning in verse
23. Turn ye at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you. I will make known my words unto
you. This is the Lord speaking, of
course. Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched
out my hand and no man regarded. But ye have said it not, all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof. You think God's anxious for you
to believe that He's dependent upon you to make His work effectual?
Verse 26 says, I also will laugh at your calamity. There's only
a couple of times that I know of in Scriptures that it talks
of God laughing. One's in the second chapter of
Psalms, I believe, when it's talking about the kings of the
earth. making their plans to cast off God and His rule. And
he says, he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. He shall
have them in derision. But this is a warning to lost
men and women who despise the grace of God. Back to verse 26. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh at desolation,
And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me,
but it'll be too late. But I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated
knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. that is
about as solemn of a warning as I can give any lost man or
woman to not despise the things of God. He very well may leave
you as you desire to be left and leave you to perish forever.
Today, God sends His messengers to lost men and women that the
message of salvation that there is to be found, salvation in
a substitute. and who the Scriptures call Jesus
Christ the righteous. Paul wrote of this to the Corinthians.
He said, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though Christ did
beseech you by us. Or as though God did beseech
you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. When I say you're going to die,
you need to understand that not only will this body die and go
into the ground, and eventually rot away, but you have an eternal
soul that will die and yet never die. It's why it's called eternal
death. God warns men and women through
His Word that there is an afterlife. There's no such thing as reincarnation
where you get to come back and you get a second chance to maybe
do things different or better. Now we've learned through scientific
research that every man and woman have a unique DNA. You have a
unique iris. You have a unique fingerprint.
Even identical twins do not share any of these traits. So is it
that much of a stretch to believe that you have a unique, never-dying
soul? There's a fourth thing that you
must know. Your soul will spend eternity in one of two places.
There's no purgatory. It's either heaven or hell. Now,
the concept of eternity is impossible for a human mind to comprehend. We try to use examples of it,
and yet, it just simply is beyond our means to understand. Everything
that we know, everyone that we know, everything that you can
touch, see, that had a beginning and will have an end, they call
Rome the eternal city. But it's not going to be there
forever. And neither are we. You need to understand that the
most terrifying thing about this place called hell is that there's no end to the
suffering of those who find themselves there. All of the horrors of
all of the torture chambers throughout history cannot compare to what
the damned in hell experience. And I'm convinced that if we
were to even see into the pit of the damned for a few seconds,
your mind would never recover. Madness would be your lot the
rest of your life. I sometimes think of those folks
that were in the Twin Towers on 9-11, how some of them were
burning to death. And chose, rather than to burn,
to jump 80 or 90 stories onto a concrete sidewalk to their
death. And I'm thinking how bad is that suffering that the better
choice is to jump out of a window. But the saddest thing of all
is that more than likely those folks jumped out of those towers
straight into the fires of hell to which there is no escape. Men joke about partying with
their friends in hell, is one of the most ridiculous
statements a man can make. Now the fifth and last thing
that you must know, and this is where I want to spend a little
more time, there is only one way to be saved
from eternal ruin. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. Salvation is not a thing. Salvation
is a person. So far, much of what I've said
is concerning God's judgment and His punishment of lost men
and women. But I want, more than anything, to make sure that you
know that this God, who will by no means clear the guilty,
has made a way for you to escape eternal ruin and to spend eternity
in His blessed presence. And that way can be summed up
in one word. substitution. The God that we worship is not
only a God of love. 1 John tells us that God is love. Now, most anyone who spent even
a little time in church knows that verse, John 3, 16, for God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And
religious people love to quote that verse as proof that God
loves everybody. He so loved the world. But if
that were the case, then one of two things is true. Either
one, everyone in the world is going to be saved and go to heaven,
or two, God is a complete failure and the death of Christ was totally
without any merit whatsoever to save anyone. Because it's
obvious that not everyone is heaven-bound. Now we need to
understand that this word world is used many different ways in
the Scriptures. It has many different meanings.
One is found in Luke 2.1. It says, And it came to pass
in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be taxed. Now obviously this did
not mean every nation on the face of the earth at that time.
The Persian Empire, the Chinese Empire, for example, were not
taxed because they were not under Roman rule. It meant the Roman
world. The same way that John 3.16 does
not mean that God loves everybody, but the world who is chosen,
his elect people. Isaiah 53 states, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. Not for the transgression of
all people, but for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Those whom God chose, in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Now, if God loved the entire world, we would not find
the Lord Jesus saying what he did in John 17. In his prayer
to the Father before he was taken to be crucified, he said this,
starting in verse 6 of John 17, I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me, for they are thine. Now if Christ loved
the entire world, every man and woman and child in it, he would
not have said those words, I pray not for the world. He talks about
the men which God the Father gave him. The scriptures clearly
teach In more places than can be denied, it clearly teaches
that before this world was ever formed, God the Father chose
a people who would be His, who would be born over the ages of
time, and who He would give faith to come to Christ. Next in this
verse, Christ says to the Father, Thine they were. Not Thine they
are now that they've made their decision to get saved, but Thine
they were, chosen before eternity to be vessels of God's mercy,
before the world was ever formed. And then Christ said, and now
gave us them me. Those chosen by God the Father
in eternity past are now given to Christ. He is responsible
for their salvation and their well-being. Further, there's
hope for the lost sinner because we find written in God's word
that he delights to show mercy. to undeserving men and women.
The words mercy and merciful are found 297 times in the King
James Bible. The word wrath is found 194 times. Proof that God speaks more of
His mercy than He does His wrath. Let me read a few verses out
of the Psalms that speak of God's mercy. I'll just quote these
without reference to where they're found. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life. Thy mercy, O Lord,
is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. For
thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
And one of my favorites, for thou, Lord, art good and ready
to forgive, plenteous in mercy unto all. that call upon thee. But thou, O Lord God, art a God
full of compassion, gracious in long-suffering, plenteous
in mercy and truth. And every verse in Psalm 136
concludes with the words, For thy mercy endureth forever. And in Micah 7, 18, He retaineth
not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. The scriptures tell us that there's
three things in which God the Father delights. First, of course,
is his blessed son. The second is his people. And
the third is showing mercy. If I could put that into human
terms, it puts a smile on God's face. It makes him happy. The God that
we worship is not some monster who rubs his hands together in
delight as he gets up each morning and says, how many people do
I get to send to hell today? He tells us in His Word, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God gets no satisfaction
of casting men and women into hell. but He's a God that delights
to show mercy to His people in Christ. But He's also a God who
must punish sin. He cannot violate His character.
Now that would be a horror to the awakened heart to know that
the very wrath of God abides upon that man and woman who's
been awakened to his or her lost condition. But there's reason
to rejoice in the midst of fear. And we're told in God's Word
that there's a judgment It has already taken place for those
who are in Christ. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. In the mind and purpose of God,
the judgment for His people's sin have already taken place. Those that have not even been
born yet. But there is an event in time where the actual judgment
and punishment for the sin of God's people took place. It happened.
when Christ hung on that Roman tree. Isaiah 53 tells us that
the Lord, God the Father, laid on Him, God the Son, the iniquity
of us all, all whom God the Father chose before the foundation of
the world. And when those iniquities were
found on Christ, He suffered the full wrath that those elect
would have suffered for an eternity in hell and three hours on that
tree. I cannot begin to comprehend
that. This is the blessed doctrine
of substitution, of another standing in our place and bearing the
wrath that would do our sins. This is pictured in Leviticus
16. Turn there with me. Leviticus
16. Leviticus 16. This is speaking,
of course, of the scapegoat. Substitution. I love this picture
of substitution. Leviticus 16. We'll begin reading
in verse 7. And he shall take the two goats
and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon
the two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the
scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering.
But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall
be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement with
him and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness." Now drop
down to verse 20. "'And when he hath made an end
of reconciling the holy place, the tabernacle of the congregation,
and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. And Aaron shall
lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all
their transgressions and all their sins, putting them upon
the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of
a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon
him all the iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he shall let
go the goat into the wilderness." This is such a blessed picture
of substitution. A picture of our sins being laid
on Christ, who bore them away into the wilderness of God's
forgetfulness. We're told in Hebrews 8.12, it
says, For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. The blood of Christ is so effectual
in wiping out our sins that God the Father, who knows all things,
cannot even remember them. They've been completely annihilated,
so destroyed that there's not a trace of them to ever be found
against us again. And there's something else that
took place in this act of substitution. In the same way that our sins
became the sins of Christ Himself, so now His righteousness becomes
our righteousness. So that when God's law looks
upon the people for whom Christ died, they see absolute perfection. They see Christ. This is the reason that those
of us who are saved cling so tenaciously to Christ. We know
we have no other hope. He is our only hope. We're dependent
upon His righteousness to present us faultless before the throne
of God. Jude tells us this in verses
24 and 25. I love this text. It says, Now
unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before His presence with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God and Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. The only righteousness that we
can claim is an imputed righteousness. The righteousness of another.
The righteousness of Christ Himself. Before God saves a man or a woman,
He teaches them what we read of in Isaiah, that their righteousness
is filthy rags, that they have nothing meritorious to offer
to a holy God. So now I hope that you're asking
the question, How, then, can this imputed righteousness
become mine? How can I stand before the judgment
throne of an all-seeing God and be viewed as being perfect, as
good as God Himself? And there's only one way, and
I want you to understand something, that God Almighty owes you nothing
but wrath. The choice of believing on Christ
is not something you can decide to do in and of yourself. The
Scriptures plainly teach that without faith it is impossible,
not extremely difficult, it is impossible to please God. And we're also told that faith
is a gift, the gift of God. A gift is not something that
you do earn, it's something that's given to you. Just a few weeks
ago, exchanged gifts. We received gifts from friends
and loved ones. Gifts that we didn't pay for.
They were paid for and given to us by another. So it is with
salvation. It was purchased for us by another. God told Moses, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy and whom I will harden. God does
harden the hearts of men and women that they cannot believe.
He did this to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh was not the only one. But some
would protest that such a God is a monster. And if that's what
you believe, you better be prepared to worship a monster. But our
God that we worship is anything but a monster. He is a God who
is merciful beyond our imagination. We cannot, in our sinful state,
imagine the purity of God. and the fact that He would be
merciful and give us a way to avoid His
eternal punishment is something that we should stand in awe of.
He could have left the entire human race to perish, but He
did not. We're told that a number that
is so vast that it cannot be numbered will one day stand and
sing praises to He that is altogether lovely. So the question is this,
do you feel your need of mercy? Or are you confident that you're
okay on your own? Let me use an illustration to
try to illustrate this point I'm trying to make. Some prisons
still have a death row. Or I should say some states still
have a death row. Sadly, not that many. But say that there's 50 inmates
sitting on death row in this prison. And one day, a message
spreads throughout death row that the governor has issued
a pardon to five inmates. Now, do you suppose that any
of those inmates would say, well, that's not fair to only pardon
five of us? No, you can be sure that those
inmates that are facing certain death will be thinking, is it
me? Could I possibly escape being
executed? They know that because they know
they're in dire need of a pardon. How about you? Do you know yourself
to be guilty before God's law? Do you know yourself to be worthy
of eternal punishment? If you do, there's hope that
God may have begun a good work in you. The question is not what
will you do with Jesus. It is what will He do with you.
Now there's one word in the English language which we read which
catches the ear of God like no other. That word is mercy. When Christ walked this earth,
you never find an account of anyone coming to Him seeking
mercy that it was not given. I love that story of blind Bartimaeus. Our Lord was going through Jericho,
pushing His way through a crowd that was just swarming Him, mobbing
Him, but it couldn't stop His forward progress. He continued
through that mob on His way out of Jericho. But over all the
noise in the den of that crowd, our Lord heard that word from
Bartimaeus, now son of David, have mercy upon me. And what
does Scripture tell us? Jesus stood still. And He called Barnabas to Him.
It says He commanded him to be called. Our Lord doesn't request
anything. He commands. And He restored
His sight to Barnabas because He had asked for mercy. So in review, There's five things
you must know. God is holy. You are not holy
and in yourself never can be. You're going to die. Maybe today. You have a soul that will live
forever. Either in eternal misery or eternal bliss. And the fifth
thing you must know is God is a God that is full of mercy.
And He's able to save to the uttermost. a conversation I once
had with a lost man about the things of eternity and judgment.
And that person told me, I try not to think about it. But that's not the answer, folks.
It's like someone who's been diagnosed with cancer and they
say, well, I try not to think about it rather than to seeking
treatment. Eventually that cancer will claim
your life and eventually If you do not bow to the Lordship of
Christ, if our God does not give you faith, you will indeed perish
forever. So I implore you not to ignore
the message of the Gospel. I implore you that if you're
able to search the Scriptures, to pray to God to have mercy
upon your soul, and from your heart, if you can do that, Proof
indeed that God has begun a good work in you. Now I pray that that will be
an encouragement for those of you that do not know the Lord,
that there is mercy to be had. And I pray it will be an encouragement
to those of us that have lost children, lost friends, lost
grandchildren, that there is hope and that hope is to be found
in God's eternal unending mercy Let's look to the Lord in prayer